Immigration: The Myth Of The 'Anchor Baby'

I recently spoke to a person who told me about their profitable “concierge service” that involves helping pregnant women come to America to give birth so their children can acquire U.S. citizenship. She is not the only one offering such help. Apparently there are a number of "baby care centers" in the United States that offer expectant mothers a place to give birth to an American citizen child.

According to the person I talked to, prospective clients are sold on the notion that public education in the United States is "free." I know in the case of my own children who went to school in the United States as Canadians, we paid a huge amount of money for their education. As this person pointed out, having an American citizen child permits that child to acquire the same education at a much lower tuition.

I often see comments on stories that talk as if a person can come across the border, have a child and stay in the country indefinitely. That isn't the way it works.

Clients of these baby care centers understand that U.S. law provides a quick and easy way for their children to acquire the benefits of American citizenship. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens of the United States.” As these women know, citizenship entails the right to enter the U.S., get access to U.S. education and health care and provides freedom of travel attendant to a U.S. passport.

There has been uproar in neighborhoods across Los Angeles county in recent months over a controversial industry called birth tourism. Wealthy foreign women in the late stages of pregnancy fly to the United States and stay at special maternity hotels. The women stay just long enough to give birth and obtain U.S. birth certificates and passports for their newborns. These maternity hotels are often run out of single family homes in suburbia. Angry neighbors picketed outside a Chino Hills, California, maternity hotel until authorities shut it down for zoning and code violations in December, 2012. Birth tourism has also ignited outrage on Capitol Hill.

The matter was raised in Congress a few years ago, with legislators debating how this growing trend could be stopped. However, efforts like this have now taken a backseat to the issue of undocumented immigrants, border security and comprehensive immigration reform. The concern over birthright citizenship has also been raised in Canada by the Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, who has vowed to crackdown on the situation.

The Myth of the "Anchor Baby"

It should be noted that citizenship by birth is not as carte blanche as you might believe. I often see comments on stories that talk as if a person can come across the border, have a child and stay in the country indefinitely. That isn't the way it works.

You may not be aware that the mere birth of a child in North America does not guarantee the child nor their parents the right to live in the United States or Canada, at least not until the child reaches the age of majority. Put another way, the family can be and often is removed from the U.S. or Canada, even if they have a native born child, because they do not have lawful status in the country. Some time in the future, once the child becomes an adult, they will be able to return to the U.S. or Canada, but that is down the road. It does not prevent deportation now.

Once a citizen child reaches 21 in the case of the United States and 18 in the case of Canada, that child can return to North America and eventually sponsor their parents to legally immigrate to the country of citizenship. As for education in the meantime, unless the child can show legal guardianship or custody by a U.S. or Canadian citizen that would give them permission to reside in North America, they will not be able to study here, either.

Andy J. Semotiuk is a U.S. and Canadian immigration lawyer, published author and former UN Correspondent with offices in New Yorkand Toronto. Sign up for his newsletter at MyWorkVisa.com